Monday, January 8, 2007

5 Contacts a Day

So I always receive these great emails from The Success Factory which I love because they are short and concise and great tidbits to remember. Today's was as follows:

Today's Tip

Subject: Happy New Year - Final

By today we hope that you have set your goals, shared and posted them. With a clean desk, organized files and office supplies replenished, you are ready to go to work. So, hit the phones. Try to reach at least 5 people a day. Don't forget to re-excite those January hostesses and begin your January customer service calls.

January is a great month to set your entire year up. Begin calling your customers from 2006 to find out how their purchases from last year are working out and see how they would like to hear from you in 2007. Will this be the year they finally join your team? If they would like to host at anytime this year, find out when and get permission to follow up with them the month before. Update your records so that you know you have the correct email address in order to keep them informed of sales and specials.

By hitting the phones daily - that 500 pound receiver will begin to lose weight. Establishing this new habit will make phoning easier and easier so…go for it!

I absolutely LOVE the advice above. I know that 5 contacts a day is something I can truly hit the mark on. Sometimes I get lucky and my inbox is full of people interested in UB and wanting info (like today!) but other times I need to huff it out there and find my own leads. Sometimes it's really important that I follow up with things I've been working on and remind individuals (blog owners, store owners, etc.) of the commitment they also made and help it to be a win/win for both of us.

Today I followed up with a potential consultant who we've had one party with. I've been experinmenting on the "earn your kit" system with her. This allows her to earn her kit by having the 3-4 parties up front and if we have enough retail volume from them, I purchase the kit in her behalf, keep the product, and then take the product from the kit to "pay me back" for my purchase. Basically it means that I will pay full price for the product and sell the product at full price but not make my 40% commission on the product in return for signing a consultant. This is not a method I strongly suggest, but for someone that has no other means of purchasing the kit and is really committed to the company I will sometimes consider it. Here are what I consider the pros and cons of doing this...

PROs

It allows someone that may have an unsupportive spouse, or no spouse (single Mom just got divorced perhaps) to be able to earn their kit through the party system when maybe they are completely tapped out on funds.

It allows me as the consultant to have "places to go" with parties and if the potential recruit never does sign on, I keep the profits and was able to have some great parties as she's dedicated to making sure we have great sales at the party.

It proves that the parties are a success and you really can earn back your kit which may change the mind of an unsupportive spouse so that they can now continue on their own without the tension at home.

CONs

To do this you need to be in a financial position that allows you take the risk on a person truly working out after you've helped them earn their kit. If you do this and then they don't really do anything with it, you've lost that time and profit.

It's not really duplicatable with other team members. This isn't something you could do with everyone. And it can set an unfair example when this person does allow it and this one doesn't, etc.

It's impossible to do remotely.

So from reading my own Pros and Cons above I've decided this isn't something I plan to do again unless I really have a "feeling" about someone and think it's worth the investment. If you're truly struggling with booking parties, I can see how this would get you to burn through some volume, but remember you have to "buy" their kit when they decide they are ready and have earned it so be careful what you promise. I'll let you know from my own experience if this does work out or if I just had some extra parties in the long run!

Right now I have 3 parties booked for January and am trying to find a 4th. I also have a store workshop tentatively booked for the week of 2/5. Kelsey who will be joining The Hive in the next few weeks will be helping me with the store party and is also attending my party on the 21st to experience one and gain some training! That's the one awesome part about hiring people in your state is that you can leverage parties to train them and teach them about UB as well. That way when it's time for their party they are set to go!

For my party on the 21st I'm using the www.constantcontact.com software to send out the E-vite. It's super cute (for those that saw my Open House email it was for Valentine's) - WHICH REMINDS ME! I have 4 parties including my Open House on the 25th! DUH! And I'll be able to use the reporting tool to see how many people actually opened it and clicked through to the personality test! I will make sure to send out the test email to The Hive so you can all see how nice it turned out and how clear the directions will be for the customers. Our postcards are darling from Corp but sometimes people see the time and date and then toss it and never look at the highlighted message to take the test online. My open house email gave me 5 personality tests already on my site today so I can tell it's working!

That's it for today... UB Book Club in a little bit over an hour... (http://www.cwahm.com/ - then online party)

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Welcome to all consultants in Urban Botanic or "compatitive" party plans! This blog is updated daily with great information to help you grow your Urban Botanic business. The stories and personal consultant experiences are taken from my team better known as "The Hive." Thanks for visiting!
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Shawna’s addiction to bath and body products has been going on since she was a little girl. When the founders of Urban Botanic approached her with their hot new company and asked for feedback, she not only gave it willingly, she joined the crusade the next day!